It kind of a tough game to make my first post about but I will start out with a positive. It’s always good when you get a win early in the season in a game that you have to fight through adversity! That being said I’m sure there is a lot of things on film coaches and players will want to correct!
Offensive line breakdown
I thought the O- line did well in the run game early. The whole first quarter The O line got good push and Moss was doing his thing. In the second quarter coach Taylor started calling more RPO(run pass option) type plays and Huntley took what the Defense gave and the quick pass game was a result of his read because of NIU playing the run. I would like to see the offense stick with power running attack and continue to let the O-line do work through out the game! I thought the big negative was in pass pro. Huntley did take a few sacks but for the most part anytime we tried to throw the ball down the field he was getting hit. Hats off to the scrappy undersized D- line of NIU guys played hard and pressured Huntley all night. The returning all American DE #15 has a motor and is super quick off the edge. He is fun to watch. One more positive was the blocking of the tight ends #44 Jackson and #89 Fotheringham! The few plays that stand out are the touchdown and a few of the Qb runs they did a good job sealing the edge on the backside of zone read!
Defensive Line breakdown
I was a little worried early NIU came in with a good game plan and was running the football well. The D line didn’t do a great job early getting off blocks and tempo was getting the best of the defense. Once they settled down the D line did a good job overall but did not make any big plays. The D line didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get sacks because of max protection and the nature of NIUs offense. But I thought they could have gotten a lot more hits on the QB. I did see #42 Tufua get home a few times but it seemed like we needed to send pressure to get to the QB most of the night. It was awesome to see the defense finally get a takeaway in a big time moment to put the game away!
Hope this post is worthwhile to you guys! It’s a long season stay positive
Go Utes!
Offensive line breakdown
I thought the O- line did well in the run game early. The whole first quarter The O line got good push and Moss was doing his thing. In the second quarter coach Taylor started calling more RPO(run pass option) type plays and Huntley took what the Defense gave and the quick pass game was a result of his read because of NIU playing the run. I would like to see the offense stick with power running attack and continue to let the O-line do work through out the game! I thought the big negative was in pass pro. Huntley did take a few sacks but for the most part anytime we tried to throw the ball down the field he was getting hit. Hats off to the scrappy undersized D- line of NIU guys played hard and pressured Huntley all night. The returning all American DE #15 has a motor and is super quick off the edge. He is fun to watch. One more positive was the blocking of the tight ends #44 Jackson and #89 Fotheringham! The few plays that stand out are the touchdown and a few of the Qb runs they did a good job sealing the edge on the backside of zone read!
Defensive Line breakdown
I was a little worried early NIU came in with a good game plan and was running the football well. The D line didn’t do a great job early getting off blocks and tempo was getting the best of the defense. Once they settled down the D line did a good job overall but did not make any big plays. The D line didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get sacks because of max protection and the nature of NIUs offense. But I thought they could have gotten a lot more hits on the QB. I did see #42 Tufua get home a few times but it seemed like we needed to send pressure to get to the QB most of the night. It was awesome to see the defense finally get a takeaway in a big time moment to put the game away!
Hope this post is worthwhile to you guys! It’s a long season stay positive
Go Utes!
